Customer Reviews

Gardena Short Handled Geared Bypass Loppers 30650-6

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In the old days, people spoke of choosing between bypass and anvil loppers. I think it is more relevant nowadays to talk about choosing between ratcheting and non-ratcheting loppers. Ratcheting types are good for very thick and hard branches, but they are clumsy to use on smaller branches because you have to pump the ratcheting handles several times to cut a single branch. For branches that are not so thick and hard that I need to use ratcheting loppers, I usually go for either the Fiskars(anvil type) or the Gardena(bypass type) non-ratcheting loppers.

Aided by the mechanical advantage of a gear reduction drive(really a form of compound lever), these Gardena loppers are quite powerful for their size and they are also quite nimble. What the gear drive does essentially is to slow down the closing of the blades. Picture this, between the fully open and the fully closed position the handles of the Gardena loppers have to swing an arc of about 105 degrees for the the blades to move about 60 degrees. These are very rough estimates I made by eyeballing the swing angles. The mechanical advantage here is roughly a 43% reduction in force needed to make a cut versus loppers that don't have a gear reduction drive.

The Fiskars have even more reduction. For the Fiskars, the handles have to swing about 110 degrees for the blades to move 45 degrees. For the Fiskars, the force reduction works out to be about 60%. In actual use the Fiskars I have take noticeably less effort to cut than the Gardena and they both take much less effort to cut than their non-gear driven brethren. The chief disadvantage of the gear driven loppers is that I have to swing the handles much farther apart to make the same size cut as the non-gear type loppers. This is especially true with the Fiskars. This is okay with Fiskars' small loppers, but not quite okay with their big loppers unless you have very long arms.

Besides being somewhat blunt to begin with when new, the Fiskars blade also blunts much more easily during use, whereas the Gardena blade is very hard and very difficult to dent. Due to the use of all-plastic handles and anvil, the Fiskars are much lighter, but the Gardena feels more solid because of the metal handles.

For comparison I also own a similarly sized but much more pricey Felco lopper. Both the Gardena and the Fiskars outperform the Felco by a wide margin in terms of force needed to make a cut. The Gardena and the Fiskars both blow the Corona forged blade loppers and the Felco (which have no gear reduction drive) out of the water. The only edge the ultra pricey Felco has over the Gardena and Fiskars is fit and finish of construction and replaceability of parts, but to me performance is much more important.

I'd say the Gardena and the Fiskars both have their strengths and weaknesses and overall both are equally desirable to own and to use.

The pair of loppers that I bought from Amazon was the fifth pair that I have purchased in the last year. I've given them to friends and use them at work and at home. The compound lever built into them makes cutting even tough woods easy. They have my highest recommendation. Martin Balding

Was pleased with the loppers until the screw that holds the blades together needed thightening every other minute. I do not recomment this product.

Lopping prunes is the best when you're watching Big Wars. You won't believe it. If you like this prune lopper, you're sure to love Big Wars.